Tag Archives: white

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

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Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring - Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.
Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring. Yosemite National Park, California. June 18, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph at the very end of spring last year in the Yosemite Sierra Nevada. Last year was a year that began much differently that this year in California. While this is a drought year, the previous season was one of record precipitation, and the high country opened very late. Even when it did open – in this case the Tioga Pass Road opened on the mid-June weekend when I made this photograph – there was still a lot of snow and ice everywhere, and much of the backcountry was still largely inaccessible. This little bit of water cascading over a boulder is a scene that could have been found in any number of places, but this one was found in a seasonal stream that tumbled down a mountainside along the roadway.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph! The colors are, obviously, very subtle, but they are there and they are, I think, important. In fact, when I was working on the image I thought about producing it as a black and white image, tried it out, and was surprised by just how different it looked when the colors were removed. There are some subtle brown/tan tones in the upper part of the boulder, and the water contains a range of subtle but important tones of blue and green.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Manzanita Plants in Bloom

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Manzanita Plants in Bloom - Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.
Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.

Manzanita Plants in Bloom. Yosemite National Park, California. April 15, 2012. Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring manzanita flowers, Yosemite National Park, California.

The manzanita plant and its pink blossoms are ubiquitous in California – and, I imagine, in other places as well. I photographed these on a bit of granite slab in Yosemite National Park in mid-April, just as the (meager, this year) spring snows were melting away and spring growth was starting, at least in this exposed spot that is open to the western sun.

This might qualify as a bit of an “accidental photograph” – a photograph that came about as the result of some combination of finding myself somewhere for some reason, getting distracted by some other thing than what I came for, and then noticing yet another subject while photographing the first distraction! This particular photography day was one of those during which things were “difficult.” I had gone up the Yosemite area for single day, with some ideas about photographing California poppies and redbud in the Merced River Canyon outside the park boundaries. I arrived in that area in the early morning and photographed some blooming redbud plants, but poppies weren’t really an option because they don’t open until they get the brighter sunlight that comes to these parts of the canyon a bit later in the day. So, mid-morning arrived and I sort of felt like I was more or less done for the morning in the canyon, so I drove up into The Valley looking for whatever. I found a bit of “whatever” in the form of some dormant trees along a stretch of the Merced, but then the light went flat, I was tired, and I wasn’t “seeing it” – so I parked the car and took a nap! (This was perhaps necessary given my 3:55 a.m. wakeup time.) A bit later the light was still not inspiring me – hey, it happens. I killed a bit of time by visiting the Yosemite Renaissance show in the Valley, and then driving off to visit another potential subject… that turned out to not work in the light of that particular late afternoon. In case you are starting to think that this sounds like a pretty sad and disappointing story… I’ve learned to be philosophical about it when I run into “blah” conditions or otherwise am just “not seeing it.” I really do understand that the counterpoint to those moments when something astonishingly beautiful happens in the landscape are those other moments when less astonishing things are all that I can find. In any case, after my drive to this other unsuccessful subject, I turned back toward the Valley and as I descended toward Wawona Tunnel I decided to stop at a turn out before the tunnel that provides an impressive view of the Valley. I stopped. The view was impressive… but still not worthy of a photograph. But I looked across the road and saw a possibly interesting little rivulet of melt water running down a crack in a granite slab, so I hoisted my gear and wandered over there to see what I could do with this subject. While photographing this feature, some clouds obscured the sun and made for temporarily poor light so I looked around a bit while waiting for the light to return, spotted thick bunches of manzanita flowers nearby that I had overlooked before, and went over and photographed them in the soft, cloud-filtered light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

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Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay - Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.
Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.

This photograph was made from a spot that many San Francisco Giants fans know rather well – the Third Street Bridge that is right next to AT&T Park. There were few Giants fans around when I made this photograph though, since it was quite early in he morning on a weekday. The camera is pointing almost but not quite directly into the early morning sun, which shines through a luminous morning haze over the bay on a very still morning.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pilings and Sky

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Pilings and Sky - Pilings stretch toward the sky at a San Francisco construction site
Pilings stretch toward the sky at a San Francisco construction site

Pilings and Sky. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pilings stretch toward the sky at a San Francisco construction site.

On this April morning I was walking around in the China Basin, Mission Bay area of San Francisco, having arrived on the train at the Fourth and Townsend Caltrain station very early. After photographing some light reflected in buildings not far from the station, I wandered over towards the Mission Bay area. There is a lot of construction going on in this “neighborhood” right now, and one particular block was a hotbed of work.

At one corner of this block work was well underway to set a large number of tall pilings into the ground for – I assume – a building that is soon to be erected here. I managed to maneuver myself into a spot where I could eliminate most of the other distractions and compose a photograph of these structures pointing toward the sky.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.